Harley "on target to launch its first electric motorcycle within 18 months"

FIRST!!

Just thought I'd beat Richard to the punch here:

"...Expands Product Development Through Increased Investment in Electric Motorcycle Technology

The company is on target to launch its first electric motorcycle within 18 months. Today, the company announces it will invest more aggressively to lead in the application of electric motorcycle technology to inspire ridership among a new audience.

"The EV motorcycle market is in its infancy today, but we believe premium Harley-Davidson electric motorcycles will help drive excitement and participation in the sport globally," stated Levatich. "As we expand our EV capabilities and commitment, we get even more excited about the role electric motorcycles will play in growing our business."

...to anyone not into electric motorcycles, the more interesting news was: "In the fourth quarter, Harley-Davidson worldwide retail motorcycle sales declined 9.6 percent versus the prior year. Harley-Davidson U.S. retail motorcycle sales were down 11.1 percent and the overall industry was down 6.5 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. Harley-Davidson U.S. market share was 50.8 percent in the 601+cc segment in the fourth quarter."

The "Faithful" hate their new Euro 4, 4-valve, bikes and it sounds like money is pretty tight for H-D. There is no way that H-D is going to sell enough electric motorcycles to make a living doing it, much less to pay the development costs. Even as our glorious Governor Moonbeam is proclaiming that California will have 5 million EVs on the road by 2030, my newspaper reports that sales of electric vehicles are slipping, compared with last year. Big gas-hogging pickup trucks are still the biggest selling vehicles and, in spite of California's efforts to raise gas prices by increasing taxes, they still remain low enough to encourage the sale of ICE vehicles and depress the sale of EVs. Plus, next year electric vehicles, including electric motorcycles, will be hit with a $100 surcharge on their yearly registration fees, which have already been raised by between $25 and $150, depending upon the original price of the vehicle, on top of the previous registration fees, which were already pretty high. When I receive the DMV registration for my new 2018 Zero, I expect the fee to be around $400 for the year (which will likely no longer be deductible on my Federal income tax return). Raising fees on electric vehicles, while demanding that more people buy them, seems kind of counter-productive to me. But that is California for you. When it comes to taxing everything in sight, they just can restrain themselves.

Let's see. Mugen (Honda) has a bike that's beaten everything on IOM since it's first year, and it keeps getting better. It obsoleted every other electric "superbike" available at the time, and nobody's caught up.

Harley floated a lame (by even comparison to my own garage build at the time) prototype - 50 miles of range, no onboard charging, they had to be cooled by bigass fans in the parking lot between 10 minute rides, for a ridiculous projected price, when Zero and Brammo both had bikes on the market that had over 100 miles of range and higher top speeds.

So now, Harley, cash strapped and suffering declining sales, is going to build a "premium" electric motorcycle out of what, thin air? ...and by who, the few engineers they poached from Brammo and Mission (I think, if memory serves...)?

Let me just remind you, a major manufacturer has to look at selling 10-100,000 units to consider a model to be "saleable". I've said it before, I'll say it again, you seriously think any company can sell that kind of volume today, or even in a few years? You think if there was a good chance that they could, Honda wouldn't take what Mugen has put together and put that beast on the market?

Puleeeeze. This ain't nothing more than HD trying not to have it's stock and company completely tank.

...though, "The company is currently looking for an Electric Vehicle Lead Project Manager, a Developmental Services Engineer – Electric Vehicle, as well as multiple Electric Vehicle Systems Engineers."

...so they're saying they're looking at "...the LiveWire, two smaller and more affordable electric motorcycles are slated for 2021 and 2022". 3 new motorcycles by next year, with no Lead Project Manager. Is it me? Am I just a cranky old skeptical bastid? (DONT ANSWER THAT ED)